Headed by its customary lashup of four green and white, gold trimmed E-8s, considered by many aficionados as the best-looking passenger diesel power, Southern Railway Train #2, the Southern Crescent, accelerates northward from Atlanta’s Peachtree station for its undulating 633 mile overnight run to Washington. With a combined 9000 horsepower in their 280 foot length, the E 8s will have no difficulty keeping schedule for an 8:30 Washington arrival next morning.

In a few months, on February 1, 1979, Southern will hand Trains 1 and 2 over to Amtrak, bringing to an end more than a century of Atlanta passenger service by Southern and its predecessor line.  Peachtree Station, known to most Atlantans as Brookwood Station, opened in 1918 to serve what were then considered Atlanta’s northern suburbs. It is now the city’s only surviving passenger station. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places